Author of California online eraser law: It’s not always easy to find the delete button

A Q&A with California State Sen.

Darrell Steinberg. Gov Jerry Brown (D-CA) signed a bill regarding advertising to minors that also allows them to remove content they post online. The legislation, SB 658, quickly attracted attention for that "eraser" provision which required all Web sites where a California minor is registered to have a way to delete content they themselves have posted. Some have criticized the legislation as out of sync with how the Internet operates or sounding similar to the "right to be forgotten" proposals that have emerged elsewhere in the world. The Washington Post talked to the author of the bill, California Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg. Sen. Darrell Steinberg said that the second part of the bill, the so-called eraser button bill, would require Internet companies to provide an easy-to-use method for a minor to delete a posting or a picture from a Web site before it's transmitted to a third party. “The purpose, of course, is to allow minors — and we've all been teenagers who sometimes act in ways that they regret a few moments or an hour later or makes their parents looking over their shoulder say "why did you post that?" —to remove it before it can be embarrassing to themselves or harmful to somebody else.” Asked how the eraser legislation differs from the delete buttons that most social media sites already have, Sen. Steinberg replied: “I think a lot of young people don't know — it's not always easily accessible to delete and it can still be accessed even if it is deleted I think in many instances with the right kind of technology… And we've seen, whether it's cyber-bullying, whether it's the posting of an inappropriately picture or a derogatory comment about a third party … and this allows them to, yes, if recognized in a very timely manner, to be able to take it back.” He went on to say that it is not always very clear how to use the delete button and that even if something is deleted, that it is potentially retrievable as far as he understands. “Would this stop other people from being able to copy things and repost them? No. We're not overselling the provision for that very reason,” Sen. Steinberg said.